Men's basketball | Winthrop coach on Newtown

After Winthrop's loss to Ohio State last night, Eagles coach Pat Kelsey, a Cincinnati native and Xavier graduate, was exchanging pleasantries with reporters as he finished his news conference when he suddenly asked if he could "say one more thing. Or is it too late?"

"The last thing I want to say is, I’m really, really lucky," Kelsey said, "because I’m going to get on an eight-hour bus ride and I’m going to arrive in Rock Hill, S.C., (this morning) and I’m going to walk into my house, I’m going to walk upstairs and I’m going to walk into two pink rooms with a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old laying in that pink room, with a bunch of teddy bears laying in that room, and I’m going to give them the biggest hug and the biggest kiss I’ve ever given them. And there’s 20 families in Newtown, Conn., that are walking into a pink room with a bunch of teddy bears with nobody laying in those beds. And it’s tragic."

Kelsey's voice cracked as he spoke the last two sentences. Before playing at Ohio State tonight, Winthrop played at Ohio University on Saturday. Kelsey has not been home since the shooting Friday that left 20 children and six adults dead at a Newtown elementary school.

"I don’t know what needs to be done. I’m not smart enough to know what needs to be done," Kelsey continued. "I know this country’s got issues. Is it a gun issue? Is it a mental illness issue? Or is it a society that has lost the understanding that decent human values are important?"

Kelsey said he did not vote for President Obama in November. "But you know what? He’s my President now, he’s my leader. I need him to step up, OK?"

Kelsey also invoked the name of John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives. "He’s a Xavier guy. He’s a Cincinnati guy," Kelsey said. "He needs to step up.

"Parents, teachers, rabbis, priests, coaches, everybody needs to step up. This has to be a time for change.

"I know this microphone is powerful right now because we’re playing the (seventh)-best team in the country. I’m not going to have a microphone like this the rest of the year, maybe the rest of my life. And I’m going to be an agent of change with the 13 young men I get to coach every day, and the two little girls that I get to raise. But hopefully things start changing, ’cause it’s really, really disappointing.

"I’m proud to grow up American. I’m proud to say I’m part of the greatest country ever. And that's got to stay that way, and it’ll stay that way if we change. But we’ve got to change."